Trying to find borders (01/27/2009)

There's a long-forgotten cemetery west of Bridge Street in Portland.

Land surveyor Joel Hoehn of Stoody Associates, Bluffton, presented the Jay County Commissioners with a survey of the area Monday, but said he was still trying to figure out where the cutoff was between the forgotten Pioneer Cemetery, owned by the county, and land owned by Dean Poole.

"It's been let go for so long," said county engineer Dan Watson. "We know it's a cemetery, we just don't know where the boundaries are."

Since the cemetery was forgotten, property owners absorbed part of it in the past without realizing. Hoehn and the commissioners were discussing how they could go about reestablishing the boundary.

Hoehn suggested the county speak with Poole and discuss either purchasing back the cemetery land which the county had lost or consider making a land swap between parts of the woods with gravestones and land that appeared empty.

"We need to talk to our attorney," said commissioner Milo Miller Jr, unsure of how to go about fixing the problem. "I think we need to do whatever's right."

A few minutes after Hoehn and Watson left, Watson popped back into the meeting to tell the commissioners the county's counsel suggested to draw up a legal description setting the cemetery bounds and that Poole would likely be willing quit claim deed it over to the county.

In other business Monday afternoon, the commissioners:

•In their capacity as the Board of Finance, reviewed interest made by the county in 2008. The county collected $425,395.08 in total interest - $343,454.67 of which was accrued in the county's general fund.

•Made Sheriff Ray Newton purchasing agent to buy four used .40 caliber rifles from the Randolph County Sheriff Department at a cost of $4,000.

The commissioners also made Newton purchasing agent to buy two in-car cameras at a cost of $8,050.[[In-content Ad]]